Mitchell Schwartz quietly holding his own with Cleveland Browns

As rookies, quarterback Brandon Weeden, wide receiver Josh Gordon and running back Trent Richardson get the benefit of a learning curve.

Richardson still needs to perfect work with his blockers? Hey, he's a rookie. He's learning.

Weeden throws four interceptions in the season opener? Rookie jitters. He'll get better.

Advertisement

Gordon drops a touchdown pass in Indianapolis? Weeden will go back to him, although Weeden has now gone eight quarters without a touchdown pass to Gordon or anyone else.

Rookie offensive linemen don't get that learning curve. Their mistakes lead to sacks and sometimes worse for the quarterback they are paid to protect.

Mitchell Schwartz, the third player selected by the Browns in the April draft and the 37th overall pick, has settled in at right tackle as though he has been there nine seasons, not just nine games. He recently was one of three Browns selected to ESPN.com's all-rookie midseason team along with Richardson and Gordon. Schwartz' next assignment is to keep the Cowboys' Demarcus Ware from getting is clutches on Weeden when the Browns' season resumes Sunday in Dallas. Ware is tied with Clay Matthews III for second in the NFL with nine sacks. Aldon Smith of the 49ers leads with 9.5 sacks.

"Anytime you're not talking about an offensive lineman they're usually doing okay," Browns offensive coordinator Brad Childress said. "That's just the way it is. I've seen him really grow and evolve since that first game against Philadelphia when all of a sudden you're getting warp speed that maybe you haven't seen before. He's a very smart guy who has physical tools."

The Browns have allowed six sacks over the last six games and 14 overall. That is third in the AFC and fifth in the NFL. Only Denver (331 passes attempted/11 sacks allowed) and the Giants (366/13), among the best at protecting their quarterback, have attempted more passes than Weeden throwing the ball 299 times.

Getting better protection for whoever ended up as quarterback was a major priority for General Manager Tom Heckert in the offseason. Last year O'Niel Cousins started at right tackle in the opener. Artis Hicks started the next two and Tony Pashos 13 straight. Hicks started the final game.

Pashos played with a foot injury all season but refused to give into the pain until the very end. The injury required surgery and increased the need to find another tackle. Schwartz, 6-foot-5, 320 pounds, fills the need and along with left tackle Joe Thomas gives the Browns bookends on their offensive line through 2015.

"The first few games was getting the base fundamentals and getting really consistent with those," Schwartz said Monday after practice. "Now you're doing pretty well with those. You can start mixing it up a little more and doing other stuff that's a little bit out of the ordinary. I think that's just getting comfortable with how everything is going."

Schwartz said he immerses himself in self-study the Monday after a game looking not only for mistakes he made the day before but he also looks for what he did correctly. He said he looks at the tape of himself in the way the upcoming opponent might.

"The team you're going to play is going to look at your last game," Schwartz said. "You want to see maybe how they're going to attack you and what your weaknesses were for that game. It's good to go back multiple games. As a player, you watch more than one game on a guy, so they're going to watch more than one game on you. You can see the areas you need to clean up but you can also see what you've been successful with because you don't want to lose that."

Schwartz said his consistency in pass protection has improved most since the start of the season. Specifically he said he has worked to improve his posture, feet and hands in pass protection.